Fermilab news

Fermilab's Inclusivity Journal Club seeks answers to difficult social questions in science. A typical meeting includes physicists and postdoctoral researchers as well as non-science staff; students are also welcome to attend. Members read and discuss reports and peer-reviewed papers that address issues such as sexual harassment, implicit bias and best practices for expanding inclusivity.

After scanning in depth about a quarter of the southern skies for six years and cataloguing hundreds of millions of distant galaxies, the Dark Energy Survey will finish taking data on Jan. 9. DES scientists recorded data from more than 300 million distant galaxies. More than 400 scientists from over 25 institutions around the world have been involved in the project, hosted by Fermilab. The collaboration has already produced about 200 academic papers, with more to come.

Fermilab has finalized an agreement with construction firm Kiewit-Alberici Joint Venture to start pre-excavation work for the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility, which will house the enormous particle detectors for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. The South Dakota portion of the facility will be built a mile beneath the surface at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota.

The new technology is a miniaturized version of a sensor developed for the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. But instead of being used for discovery science, the sensors are developed to screen cargo by detecting muons, particles that penetrate materials such as concrete and lead.

From Live Science, Jan. 12, 2019: In the 1920s, careful and detailed observations of those decays found tiny, niggling discrepancies. The total energy at the start of certain decay processes was a tiny bit greater than the energy coming out. The math didn't add up. Odd. So, a few physicists concocted a brand-new particle out of whole cloth: A little, neutral one. A neutrino.

From 365 Days of Astronomy, Jan. 12, 2019: The Dark Energy Survey is the subject of this 30-minute podcast. DES started in 2013 to map dark energy over 5000 square degrees of sky. It used a massive 500-megapixel camera attached to the Blanco Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The survey concluded on Jan. 9, 2019, with its last night of observing. At the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, they conferenced with observers on the last night. Listen to the conversation at the end of this journey.

From University of Chicago, Jan. 9, 2019: After scanning about a quarter of the southern skies over 800 nights, the Dark Energy Survey finished taking data on Jan. 9. It ends as one of the most sensitive and comprehensive surveys of its kind, recording data from more than 300 million distant galaxies. Fermilab, an affiliate of the University of Chicago, served as lead laboratory on the survey, which included more than 400 scientists and 26 institutions.

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment wants to solve one of the biggest mysteries in science today, namely, why do we exist? Fermilab scientist Bonnie Fleming appears in this 6-minute explainer video.